The Living Christ or Dead Tradition
I come now, briefly, to the law of spiritual understanding, and it will not take very long to point it out and deal with it.
What does this chapter, or the general context, show to be the law of spiritual enlightenment and understanding? Well, you need to read the whole story through again; the start in the opening of this man's eyes, and all that was subsequent to it, or issued from it, and you will see that one thing governs this whole matter: because Christ was doing this thing as a sign; remember that; a sign in the midst of blindness, spiritual blindness, the blindness of Israel all around. This man received his sight. It was a sign. It was meant to relate to that situation. What was the issue raised fr this man in the terrific conflict which followed. Oh, what a battle arose over this man! Why, his parents were very soon dragged into it. They had the scare of their lives and compromised, and would not say what they knew, would not be frank and honest, because afraid of the consequences. At length this man was put out of the synagogue, excommunicated. Why? It was Christ or tradition. That was the issue. The whole question was as to whether Christ was going to be the Lord, or whether He was going to be lorded over, and dominated by dead tradition. Here, as we have seen, were all the oracles of God. Here was all the form of doctrine, here the tradition of the elders, here those set, fixed, ecclesiastical rulers in relation to it, holding it to themselves and giving their own interpretation; without life, without light, and yet holding the truth. And then Christ, on the other hand, Who had it all, but also that which they did not have, the life and the light. Hear Him: "It was said ... but I say." In no instance was it a contradiction of Moses, but an interpretation of Moses. You look at the context, and you will see that what Christ said was getting at the inner principle and not merely the outward phraseology. Moses said: "Thou shalt not kill ... But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment ..." Not a contradiction, but an interpretation. That is getting at the principle. The principle of murder is anger. And if you have got the principle, you are just as guilty of the issue as though you had committed it. It is there in principle. It is the living authority of Christ which is in question, and the law of spiritual enlightenment and understanding is the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ as over mere tradition; it may be religious heredity, training, upbringing. If these two things clash, and if our traditions, and our acceptances, and our religious systems, are not in fellowship with Christ as life and light, or for one moment get in the way of a living walk with God; if going on with the Lord Jesus means that these things should be left behind, well, our spiritual understanding and enlightenment hang upon that issue. Many a person has not gone on into the fuller revelation, and come to an inward rich knowledge of the Lord, because they have stuck to the old traditional life, and will not break with it; because they have allowed man to dominate their conscience and understanding, instead of coming direct to the Lord. It is not now, What saith the Rabbi, tradition, or Moses? It is: What saith the Lord to my own heart? And the whole issue in this chapter for this man was whether the Lord Jesus was going to be his Master, or whether he was going to break with the Lord Jesus, and turn back to the Pharisees, to the old school again. The law of his enlightenment was there. You may say he was enlightened before that issue arose. Yes, but t is the sign. You have to see the Lord was doing something more. The end of verse 34: "And they cast him out," would be chapter 10, verse 1: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out." How? Because they hear His voice! The whole question of the Lord's sheep comes in, when they thrust this man out. Those whom men cast out, the Lord takes up, and forms of them His Own flock on the basis of knowing, hearing, understanding His voice.That from which they have come out does not hear, see, or know; that is the realm of darkness. This man was cast out, and it was not until he was cast out, that the Lord sought him and started leading him, in principle. Now you have to have the Lord's application of the truth. Do not begin to apply it in any mechanical way. I am emphasizing the principle of this, not how you are to apply it. The principle is this, that there are two lordships. There is the lordship of lifeless tradition, a religious order and system of things, which may have had a right and proper origin in God, but has now been taken up by man, possessed by man, used by man, interpreted and applied by man, and that dominates. On the other hand there is the living, personal Christ for the individual life, to Which of these two is going to be Lord? I say, if such a position does hold, that these two things are two different things. We may well thank God when these two thing are found to be as one. That is, Christ may be livingly Lord within an ordered arrangement here; but if things are as they were in this case, Christ as One Lord, and religious tradition as another, then there is an issue, there is a crisis. I see, in applying the principle, that so much of our knowledge of the Lord depends upon our willingness to go on with Him, when such a course means very often a break with, or, departure from some old tyrannizing religious tradition. While we remain in bondage to that, we are kept in a limitation of spiritual knowledge. The law of revelation and of growing in revelation is a personal, close, spiritual walk with the Lord.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 42 - "The Cost of Spiritual Sight")
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